BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (CBS) – A Connecticut woman mistakenly lit a stick of dynamite instead of a candle during a power outage and suffered severe injuries Thursday night, police said.

Authorities said the “tragic accident” happened to the 30-year-old mother of two on Lindley Street after thunderstorms passed through the Bridgeport area. The family tried to go to Home Depot to buy emergency lighting, but the store was closed.

When they got back home, they went to get what they believed were candles left behind in the basement by previous residents.

“She attempted to light one of what she thought was the candle and turned out to be a quarter stick of dynamite,” police said.

I mean… quarter sticks are generally black powder, not dynamite. Trinitrotoluene can leak nitroglycerine, rendering it extremely unstable to impact… typically not made into small sticks like this as it has no industrial purpose, and too dangerous for the untrained person to handle. It was likely a black-powder stick, as they tend to be capped with wax which would cause an uninformed person to misconstrue it as a candle potentially.

Nobody today should use candles for emergency lighting. Even real candles can be dangerous and they don’t put out much light. Now we have available a wide variety of LED flashlights, headlamps, and lanterns that are bright, safe, and easy on batteries. Everybody should equip themselves with some sort of battery-powered LED lighting before the emergency hits. And check the batteries regularly and store them where they don’t accidentally get turned on.

The smart asses and sociopaths making derogatory comments or attempts at humor about this article need to unplug from the internet and social media for a while and learn how to be a decent human again. Who in the hell leaves sticks of dynamite behind when they move from somewhere? How many people in this day and age would recognize it in a dark basement for what it was? Maybe dynamite had not been part of her life experience to date. Probably a home-maker not a coal miner. I hope this lady recovers and whoever left dynamite laying around gets charged.

Th Harris you are so correct in your statement. Why anyone would post a nasty comment is beyond me. Sympathy to this lady and I hope she comes out of this horror with the least amount of injuries as possible. Saying others for you.

ZERO planning and ZERO thought equals NO COMMON SENSE!!! How can anyone feel sorry for someone so deliberately ignorant? So if someone left some anti-freeze in a jar without labeling it, would she believe it was Kool-Aid and drink it? Hopefully her water is never shutoff and she is not thirsty…

Well, to light a stick of dynamite it has to have a fuse inserted into a cap/detonator. And those are not left laying about by anyone. Also, lighting a fuse is not easily done. A match doesn’t in my experience work. It takes a very hot flame like a propane torch. So, a made up story to cover up the exploding crack pipe…..

Forgive me for laughing but you really must be a special kind of stupid not to be able to tell the difference between a candle and a stick of dynamite. Unless it’s old and sweating the stuff is difficult to get to explode. In fact, the detonator is more dangerous than the dynamite. If it’s sweating though you don’t want to handle it because that sweat is nitroglycerine and that will explode. But if it’s open and not contained and you light it it simply burns. If it was a quarter stick of dynamite she’s damn lucky to be alive. Still, I can’t see how she would’t be able to tell the difference.

Robert, trinitrotoluene (TNT) is not nitroglycerine, nor will it decay into nitroglycerine. They are two different chemicals. Most dynamite consists of nitroglycerine soaked in something like sawdust. And yes, dynamite becomes unstable with age and only experts should handle the stuff.

Hmm….the thought occurs that anyone who’s set fireworks off before would…or should know what fuses look like…. Then there’s the whole issue of dynamite vs TNT vs black powder…. There’s obvious differences…in markings, size, etc…. So, how do you mistake that for candles?
I suspect there’s more to this story, besides sheer stupidity…perhaps drug use of a prank gone wrong…
Either way, the story is way over sensationalist and was likely written by a liberal who wants to cry about “dangerous” explosive devices that no one should ever have or get access to….all part of the typical leftys undermining anything they don’t like….but, it’s for your own good of course…

I don’t believe a word of it. I grew up on a farm, and we disposed of old dynamite by burning it. It burns quietly. To set off an explosion takes a percussion cap; heat won’t do it. This woman got hold of a railroad flare or old fireworks.